Passing the PRINCE2 Exams For Dummies

Understanding the Exams and Levels

There are two main exams: the Foundation and the Practitioner. Then there’s the Re-registration exam which you need to take at intervals of from three to five years to keep your Practitioner qualification up to date. Foundation and Practitioner exams are aimed at slightly different things, although there’s an overlap.

The Foundation Certificate is intended to show that you understand the terminology of the method and the how all the elements of PRINCE2 work, for example how themes are used during projects, and also how the elements work together. For example, how does the principle of ‘manage by exception’ fit into the processes?

The Practitioner Certificate, as the name suggests, is intended to show that you can apply the method to a project. The Practitioner level overlaps with Foundation in that the exam also checks for understanding of how the method is used. The Practitioner exam then goes on to test your ability to apply the method to a project by giving you a description of a project (the project ‘scenario’) and basing many, but not necessarily all, of the Practitioner questions on it. The same project scenario is used throughout a particular Practitioner paper. To put your mind at rest a bit, the pitch of the exam is that you can apply the method to a non-complex project.

The Re-registration exam is, obviously enough, at Practitioner level.

Understanding the Foundation exam

The PRINCE2 Foundation Certificate, then, is intended to show ...